Sebastian Zapeta, Guatemala migrant id as suspect who set sleeping Brooklyn bound F subway rider on fire at Coney Island stop, Stillwell Avenue, killing her, Sunday morning. Man yet to be charged. No known motive in attack.
NYC authorities have arrested a male suspect they say lit a sleeping woman on fire inside a Brooklyn bound F train on Sunday morning,
Police sources say three teen boys identified the suspected killer as they rode on a train at 34th Street in Manhattan.
The witness waved down the cops, who later picked the suspect up and detained him. The suspected late Sunday was identified as Sebastian Zapeta, a 33 year old Guatemala migrant. It remained unknown if the migrant was legally residing in the United States.
Guatemala man who burned woman to death on F train id as illegal immigrant
This man threw a lit match on a woman who was sleeping on the New York F train causing her to burst into flames, she died. pic.twitter.com/fhTA0vTStX
— PooliePals Acquired Vids (@pooliepal) December 22, 2024
The suspect, described as a 33 year old migrant living in a shelter at Randall’s Island has not been charged with a crime yet.
The suspect entered the country and was detained by border patrol agents in Arizona in June 2018 — and so far authorities have not found a past criminal record for him in New York City, law enforcement sources said.
The man’s arrest follows an unidentified female subway rider being set on fire earlier that day and being burned alive while on the F train at Coney Island’s Stillwell Avenue subway station just on 7.30 am.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said during a press conference that the suspect used a lighter to ignite the victim’s clothing, immediately engulfing her in flames.
The Guatemala migrant is suspected of setting the woman on fire and then watching her burn to death. The man was able to escape the scene after responding police unwittingly ushered nearby passengers to leave the scene.
Cops had briefly talked to the man, not aware that he had set the woman on fire and told him to leave the scene in the immediate aftermath of the attack.
Sources said the victim was found with liquor bottles strewn about her, though it was not immediately clear if the perp used them in the attack.
Officers from the 60th Precinct and Transit District 34 who were patrolling the platform rushed to the scene after smelling smoke and discovered the woman fully engulfed in flames and immediately extinguished the fire.
Despite the officers’ efforts, EMS pronounced the woman dead at the scene.
Unbeknownst to the officers, the perp was sitting on a bench outside the train, looking in at the victim as flames consumed her body. The man was ushered to leave the ‘hazardous’ scene before surveillance video zeroed in on him as the likely suspect and a civilian later that morning calling authorities after identifying him midtown.
‘Other transit officers responded to that 911 call, and also spotted the man, wearing the same grey hoodie, distinct wool hat, paint splattered pants and tan boots already on another moving train,’ Tisch explained. ‘Police radioed ahead to have the trains stopped.’
Cops from Transit District 2 walked through each car of the stopped train until they located and arrested the suspect without further incident, Tisch said.
Prior to the suspect’s arrest, transit police had released images of the suspect perp, described at the time as being 5 foot, six inches tall, approximately 25 to 30 years old and weighing around 150 pounds. He was last seen wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, blue jeans, a dark-colored knit hat with a red band, and brown boots. Items he was discovered wearing at the time of his arrest.
Police have not identified the victim yet. The investigation remains ongoing. No known motive was immediately known.
